Testing for Giftedness

Q:
My daughter is 3 years old, she will be 4 in October. I want
to know if you think that she is a gifted person and if
there is anything that I can do to foster her level of giftedness.

When she was 6 months old, she knew every part of her body: head, hands, feet, nose, eyes, elbow,
knees, legs etc. She couldn't say them to you, but she could point them out
to you if you asked her where they were. When she was 1 if you asked her
to get 1 Kleenex, she would get you one Kleenex etc. Her motor skills were
excellent, she was doing puzzles (children's size jigzaw puzzles, she was
always very alert and attentive, good attention span, listened very well,
extremely curious, and creative.

Now that she is 3 - she is using complete adult sentences, her vocabulary is very good, she annunciates words that are
really big and she says them clearly, she is always making up songs, creating
stories which are completely believable, and is always pretending to play the
piano, guitar etc. She has a strong desire to attend school. Just the
other day she said that she was in school and was writing her words - she was
scribbling inside the lines of notebook paper as if she was writing sentences.
She reads signs for fast food restaurants - like Pizza Hut (there is not a
picture of a pizza on their sign so she could not be relating it to pizza.)

Is she a gifted child? Is she too young for an IQ test? Do you have any advice?

A: She can be
tested for giftedness at 4 years of age, though I do not
usually encourage testing very young children for giftedness
unless there is a purpose to it. She does show some above
average qualities and I am sure that you are doing a great
job to nurture those abilities.

For now, it may not be very important to determine if she
is gifted, but what is more important is for you to nurture
her strengths and expose her to new experiences. At this
age, children absorb a lot especially if they find the
learning activity meaningful. It would also be a good idea
to send her to a play school, if she is not in one. At her
age, she also needs to learn to socialize, so any enrichment
activity which involves other children would be a good
starting point. This is important as school would require socializing and since she has a strong desire to attend
school, her lack of skills in socializing can be quite
devastating.

Keep nurturing her as best as you can. Please refer to my
advice on
enrichment activities for gifted toddler to enhance her learning journey.
If you feel that you need to test her abilities to help her with her strengths and
weaknesses, you may want to look for a good educational
psychologist who will be able to test her and interpret the
results to you. Best of luck!